Open Billing when you can read billing for the selected organisation. On an older billing account, that is an organisation administrator. On a first-site-free account, that is the recorded owner who still administers the organisation that holds the billing account. Another organisation administrator on a first-site-free account does not see Subscription and billing or Plans once access has been checked. An organisation paid for by another organisation's subscription has no billing of its own, so its administrators do not see those links either. Ask the account owner who administers the organisation that holds the subscription. Opening Billing with no organisation selected asks you to select an organisation. While access is loading, the page shows Loading billing…. When you cannot read billing, it shows Billing is managed by the account owner and "You can use the rest of the dashboard. Billing for this organisation is not available to you." Overview, Plans, Payment methods and Invoices stay closed. If the access check fails, the page shows Billing could not be loaded and Try again. A person who is not an organisation administrator sees Billing requires an organisation administrator. Someone who can read billing sees the same billing pages as before. The server still refuses the billing routes. In an enabled test environment, new PAYG and Agency accounts use the separate scoped card setup, activation quote and payment-recovery flow described under Complete setup. They cannot use the older Billing dashboard write flows below. Live new purchases remain unavailable, and the complete new billing dashboard is still pending; see Current account setup limits.

Subscription and payment notices from Sentinel name the organisation in the subject and show Organisation and Plan in the message. Check that organisation before following a billing link, especially if you manage more than one. The recipient address identifies who received the notice.

New accounts: first site free

These pages describe accounts set up on the first-site-free terms (new accounts). Older accounts keep the wording in the legacy parts of this section.

Overview shows the plan from your card setup: Pay as you go or Agency. With no plan yet it reads No plan chosen and a notice says Choose a plan and verify a card. There is no Free plan and no trial.
Pay as you go shows the number of sites and "Your first site is free. Additional sites US$8 a month each." (the price follows your billing currency), plus how many additional sites are billed.
Your card needs to be verified appears when the card expired or was replaced. Your free site is paused until a card is verified, except on an account Sentinel support moved to Pay as you go, whose free site needs no card.
Discount appears in the plan box when a discount is on your subscription: for example "20% off from voucher CODE". "From voucher" appears only for a code you entered, and "until" followed by a date only for a discount with an end date; current voucher discounts last for as long as you subscribe. When more than one discount applies it reads "Discounts applied, see your invoices".
Have a voucher code? on Overview is for billing managers of Pay as you go accounts, and only where Pay as you go billing is open. Open the panel (a link ending in ?code= opens it with the code filled in), enter the code and select Check code. The result shows what the code gives, for example "20% off, for as long as you subscribe", and the next step depends on the code:
- Redeem for a Black membership code. Your email address must be confirmed first; if it is not, use the link we emailed you and try again. The Black membership notice then appears, with its end date or "Black has no end date." A code that gives Black for a number of days counts them from the day you redeem it.
- See the discounted price when you already have a paid subscription. It shows your next bill with the discount and says nothing is charged now. Tick the consent box and select Confirm discount. The discount appears on your next invoice; if the page says it is still being added, reload in a minute.
- Before you have a paid site, the page keeps the code in this browser and fills it in on the review step of your next paid site. A code that cannot be used shows the reason under the field. If the panel is missing, vouchers are not open for your account or you are not a billing manager.
Changing price while a discount is on. Moving to Agency, or changing an older plan or billing period, is refused while a discount is on the subscription so the discount is not lost. Contact support; they will help you make the change.
There is no trial, Cancel subscription or Keep plan button on these accounts. To stop paying for some additional sites on Pay as you go, deactivate or remove them on Sites; the first site stays free and the billed number drops before your next invoice. To stop paying for all of them, the account owner selects Cancel paid sites on Overview. On Agency the owner selects Cancel Agency. Other members do not see these buttons. No support request is needed.
Cancelling paid sites or Agency. A dialog shows the cancellation terms. Tick I agree to cancel on these terms and confirm. Cancelling takes effect at the end of the paid period. Nothing you have already paid is refunded. Until then your sites keep running, but adding sites is refused while the cancellation is pending. A subscription with an unpaid invoice is cancelled at once.
Resume subscription undoes a pending cancellation before the end date. There is no new quote and no new charge.
When the period ends, every paid site's approval ends and those sites are deactivated, not deleted. Pay as you go keeps its free first site. Agency moves to Pay as you go with one free site (the site Agency approved first) when billed in USD or AUD. An Agency account billed in EUR keeps no active site. Stripe ending the subscription after failed payments has the same result. To activate a site again, use the normal quote on Sites. Afterwards Overview shows Your paid plan has ended and how many sites were deactivated.
Billing address and tax ID opens a Stripe page limited to your name, billing address, tax ID and invoice history. It appears only when the billing portal is available for your account; otherwise the button is hidden. You cannot change cards, cancel or change plan there.
Before your first invoice you can use Bill in AUD instead or Bill in USD instead. This clears your verified card, so the free site pauses until you verify a card again.
Plans shows Pay as you go (monthly) and the Agency options, with your current plan marked. There is no Free card, currency switch or purchase button. Other cards say Choose this plan when you verify a card on the Payment methods page. (no plan yet), Use Move to Agency on this page. (on Pay as you go, for the account owner), Only the account owner can move to Agency. (on Pay as you go, for other administrators) or Contact support to change plan. On Agency, the Pay as you go card says Contact support to move from Agency to pay as you go.
Move to Agency is for the account owner of a Pay as you go account, on Plans. Choose Monthly or Annually, then select Review the Agency quote. The dialog Review the move to Agency shows the Agency package price in your billing currency (the free first site gives no deduction), a credit for unused pay as you go time when you have paid sites, and that the verified card pays. Tick the consent box and confirm. Every active site carries over. Nothing changes until the payment succeeds; if it fails the account stays on Pay as you go. On success you see Your account is now on the Agency package. All your active sites carried over. The section shows no button when the card is not verified, paid sites are set to cancel (select Resume subscription first), another billing change is waiting for payment, or the account has more active sites than Agency covers (50 by default). In that last case it says Agency covers up to N sites and this account has M. Deactivate sites first, or contact support. Moving from Agency back to Pay as you go needs Support.
Payment methods has no Add card, Make default or Remove. Cards are never changed in the Stripe billing portal. Select Replace card (or Verify a card with no plan) to verify a card in place. With no plan yet, first choose Pay as you go, billed monthly, Agency, billed monthly or Agency, billed yearly and select Continue; if your bank asks you to authenticate, you come back to the same plan and currency. On success you see Your card was verified and is now the default for invoices and renewals. If a subscription could not move to the new card, a message asks you to contact support.
Billing emails for these accounts match the pages above. On Pay as you go, the renewal reminder and receipt say to lower the charge by removing additional sites under Sites (your first site stays free). On Pay as you go and Agency they say to reply to the email or contact support to change plan. The account owner can cancel from the Cancel paid sites or Cancel Agency button on Overview. If a payment fails, the email asks you to replace the card under Settings, Billing, Payment methods. If it keeps failing, the subscription ends and the sites it pays for are paused.

Tax and billing details

Prices exclude tax unless stated otherwise. Where automatic tax is enabled for a new paid subscription, Stripe uses your billing details to calculate applicable tax. Review the amount due now and the renewal amount before approving a paid-site or Agency quote. Your free first site does not create a paid subscription or a tax charge.

If tax cannot be calculated because your location is missing or invalid, open Billing → Overview → Billing address and tax ID, update your billing address, then return and request a new quote or retry checkout. The button requires billing management access and an available billing portal. If it is missing, contact the billing account owner or Sentinel support. If the message says the payment provider could not calculate tax, try again shortly; an incomplete calculation is not a tax-free quote.

If a paid-site or Agency purchase is refused because the billing address is invalid, repair the address and request a fresh quote before confirming again.

Where an older account is offered a trial without a card, automatic tax still requires a usable billing address before the trial starts. Update it using the same Billing address and tax ID button, then retry starting the trial. An address request does not add a card requirement or charge for starting that trial. Review the trial’s renewal terms: a saved default card can pay when the trial ends, while a trial without a card can return to Free.

When Stripe Checkout requests a billing address, complete it and supply your business tax ID where applicable. Existing subscriptions keep their current tax settings; contact Sentinel support about changes to an existing subscription. Check the invoice for the tax charged.

Black membership

Black is a membership for a person, not an organisation. Sentinel staff give it, or you get it by redeeming a Black membership voucher code (see Have a voucher code? above, or the voucher field at signup). You cannot buy it. When it starts you get an email, "Black membership is on", and the Billing overview shows a Black membership notice. If you already have Black, a Black code is refused with "Black membership already covers this account.", and discount codes are refused for the accounts it covers because nothing needs buying.

While Black is active, every billing account you own, and the organisations those accounts cover, have no activation charge. Usually there is no site limit either. Staff can set one when they give you Black: it counts the active sites in every billing account you own, together. The notice then reads "cover up to N active sites in total (M in use)". At the limit, adding or switching on another site is refused with "Black membership covers up to N sites across the owner's billing accounts, and they are in use." Remove or deactivate a site, or ask support to raise the limit. Only the account owner sees how many are in use, on the Billing overview. Nothing can be bought beyond the limit, and no site is switched off because of it. If you see "The account is busy. Please try again.", another change to the account is running; try again in a moment. A Black code has no site limit. You and the members of those organisations add sites on the Sites page and they are switched on straight away, with no card setup and no quote. Every paid Sentinel feature is on: push frequency, refresh on demand, SLA, update history, reports and branding. The notice says "until" followed by the end date, or "Black has no end date." The plans link is hidden and the card and plan prompts do not appear. Where the support assistant is on, members of those organisations also get a higher organisation daily usage limit and no organisation daily message count; the per-conversation, account and whole-service limits still apply.

Black does not change:

The limit of 50 users, roles and permissions, email verification before the first site, and the terms.
Organisations you administer but do not own. They are not covered.
Money already being charged. Starting Black does not change an existing bill. A live subscription keeps billing; the notice says so. To lower the next renewal on pay as you go, remove sites on the Sites page as usual. To cancel an Agency package, select contact support in the notice.

When Black ends

Black can be ended early or it can pass its end date. Either way nothing is charged and nothing is switched off, and your sites keep monitoring. You get an email and a message in the message bell seven days before a dated end, and another when it ends. The email lists the active sites that will need approval and the message says how many; both have an Open billing action. They name only sites on current-contract accounts you own (pay as you go or Agency), in organisations you still administer. The message titles are Black membership ends on the date and Black membership has ended.

Pay as you go (first site free). Active sites that have no billing approval lose their paid features. The Billing overview then shows a section, "Sites without billing approval", that says how many sites have no paid features and that you see the price before you confirm and nothing is charged until you do. As the billing account owner, select Approve the site or Approve N sites. The review opens with a quote. Tick the approval box and select Confirm and pay; use Review a fresh quote if the quote has changed, or Cancel to stop. Card setup and the payment mandate must be done first (see "Payment methods" under Billing). The first approved site is the free one. After it succeeds, the message The sites are approved and their paid features are on. appears. Anyone else who can see Billing sees the section but not the button; ask the owner.
Older per-site subscription. Sites you switched on during Black stay out of the billed quantity and lose their paid features once Black ends. There is no approval step on these accounts.

Overview (existing accounts)

On an existing account, review the current plan and state, site usage, billed sites, current period, trial end, and next invoice. A warning can identify failed payment, incomplete first payment, a paused plan, a pending cancellation, or usage above the allowance.

Use the offered billing-details action to update the billing profile through the payment service. If Stripe cannot be reached, treat old displayed values as unconfirmed and retry. Do not assume a failed page load changed the subscription.

Plans and trials (existing accounts)

This part does not apply to new first-site-free accounts, which have no trial, Free plan or Cancel subscription button. Open Plans. Select an offered currency and billing interval. Compare the current site allowance, included features, and estimated amount. Prices exclude tax unless stated otherwise; applicable tax is shown during checkout and on the invoice.

Read the confirmation before subscribing or changing a plan. It states whether the action is immediate, whether a payment is due, or when a scheduled change takes effect. Some changes keep the existing plan until the paid period ends. You can cancel a pending change from Overview when the action is offered.

Trial eligibility, duration, and card requirements come from the service. Where the older checkout flow remains permitted, a paid plan chosen at registration starts with a card on secure checkout; see Billing step for paid plans under Complete setup. A trial with a saved default card can convert to a paid subscription. A trial without a card can return to Free. Review the exact end date and renewal disclosure before starting.

Account moved to pay as you go by Sentinel

Sentinel support can move an older Free or trial account to Pay as you go for you. Billing contacts then get an email, Your account has moved to Pay as you go. After the move:

Nothing is charged for the move. A trial is cancelled, so it does not turn into a paid plan.
Your earliest active site stays free and keeps working, with no card needed for it. The email names it.
Other sites keep all their data but are set inactive. To add one back, verify a card under Billing, Payment methods, then activate it on a quote; see Adding sites to a pay as you go or Agency plan under Sites.
Billing then works as described under New accounts: first site free.

Move to pay as you go

An account on a legacy plan (Free, Solo or Studio) can move itself to pay as you go from Plans. Only organisation administrators see the Move to pay as you go section, and only when the account can make the move. If it is not shown, Contact support is offered instead.

Select Move to pay as you go. If the account has no verified card, choose the Billing currency (USD or AUD) and add a card through the secure form. The payment terms for pay as you go are accepted at this step. An account with a current paid plan or trial keeps that plan's currency, so no choice is offered. A bank redirect returns you to this page.
Choose Which site stays free? when you have more than one site. The free site stays free indefinitely.
Select Review the quote and read it. Every other active site is billed monthly at the pay as you go price. Tick the consent and approve. Nothing changes until you approve.

Moving does not charge for the switch. A current Solo or Studio subscription or trial continues as the same subscription on pay as you go. A trial ends when you approve, with no charge for it. A period you have already paid for is kept and renews at the pay as you go price. A cancellation you had scheduled is removed. If the payment is declined, the subscription is left unchanged and you can retry. If payment needs bank verification, use Check payment and complete verification. No site loses access during the move. After it applies, the page confirms "Your account is now on pay as you go."

On Plans, an account on pay as you go cannot start or change an old plan, so those buttons are hidden and a notice says so. Cancel subscription stays available while you still hold a legacy subscription.

On an existing account, use Cancel subscription to review the cancellation terms and confirm. Where cancellation is scheduled for period end, Resume can undo it before that date. Subscription cancellation does not delete the organisation's monitoring records. Free-plan limits still apply after cancellation.

Changes made by platform support

If you ask Sentinel support, platform support can change your organisation's subscription for you. This includes cancelling or extending a trial (by up to 30 days), cancelling at period end or immediately, resuming a cancellation, and changing plan.

When support makes a change that normally sends a billing email, such as cancelling, ending or extending a trial, or changing plan, each billing contact (an active Organisation Admin) gets that email, with the same subject. Resuming a cancellation and keeping the current plan in place of a scheduled change send no email, as when you do them yourself. A second paragraph says: "This change was made by platform support on behalf of [organisation name]. If you did not expect it, contact support."

If support extends a trial, billing contacts get an email titled "Your [plan] trial now ends on [date]". It says the trial has been extended, that nothing is charged before then, and that you can add a card, change plan or cancel the trial under Settings, Billing.

Billing shows the change after Stripe confirms it, as it does for any change. If it still shows the old state, wait a moment and reload. Members who are not administrators cannot open Billing. An administrator who cannot read billing sees Billing is managed by the account owner and the billing pages stay closed.

Payment methods

Open Payment methods. On a new first-site-free account, use Replace card as described above. On an existing account, add a card through the secure payment form, set the default card, or remove a card when permitted. Follow any payment authentication prompt. The interface shows card metadata, not the full card details.

Changing a card does not by itself confirm that an outstanding invoice was paid. Return to Overview and Invoices to check the payment state.

Invoices

Open Invoices. Review invoice dates, amounts, currency, and status. Use the available invoice link to view or pay it, and the download link for its PDF. Use additional-page controls when offered.

If the first payment is incomplete or a later payment fails, follow the invoice and card recovery actions. Confirm that billing and site submissions have recovered before treating monitoring as current.